Watcher
Watchers are hostile mobs that can spawn from Underzealot sacrificial rituals. They can possess players while attacking them, causing their victims' point-of-view to switch to their own.
Cave Compendium Entry
"The Watcher is a monster that can be found in the Forlorn Hollows, but only appears as the result of an Underzealot sacrifice of a Gloomoth. Watchers will seek out any adventurer over a great distance, and begin to stalk them. Occasionally, they make their presence known by possessing their target, and forcing their target to see the world from the Watcher's perspective. During this possession the target cannot move, and afterwards the Watcher's moth face appears shortly in their vision. When a Watcher is close enough, it will quickly lash out with its sharp claws, before transforming into an ethereal flying form. It will then continuously posess [sic] its target whilst lashing at it, making it a difficult fight. If a Watcher is slain, it will drop some Dark Tatters along with an occasional Occult Gem."
- - Dr. Prof. Alexander Caverns, PhD.
Spawning
Watchers spawn after 4 or more Underzealots sacrifice a Gloomoth during a ritual.
For more information on this process, see Underzealot.
Drops
On death
| Item | Roll Chance | Quantity (Default) | Quantity (Looting I) | Quantity (Looting II) | Quantity (Looting III) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Occult Gem |
100% | 0-1 | 0-2 | 0-3 | 0-4 |
 Dark Tatters |
100% | 0-2 | 0-3 | 0-4 | 0-5 |
Behavior
Watchers will attack any player within a staggering 256-block radius. Should any mob - except Underzealots, Forsaken, or other Watchers - hit a Watcher, it and all other Watchers within a 256-block radius will retaliate against them; once provoked, they will remain hostile until their target dies or exits their detection range. When idle, they will aimlessly wander around while violently twitching their heads every so often; they are immune to fall damage, and thus will not avoid drops of more than 3 blocks, unlike other mobs.
Upon getting within 20 blocks of a target, a Watcher will start running towards its target with arms outstretched, swiping at them with its claws once it reaches them - after successfully hitting them at least once, it will enter a transparent, flight-capable shade form and retreat up to 16 blocks away from its target for a minimum of 1.5 seconds before charging towards them again, switching back to its standard form if within 6 blocks of them while touching the ground. Watchers will also enter their shade form if their target is on a wall more than a block tall.
As beasts of the Forlorn Hollows, Watchers will attack any mobs that get hit with Moth Dust within a 32-block radius - in addition to this, they are ignored by Forsaken under normal circumstances.
Possessing players
Upon spotting a player, a Watcher will possess them. Possessed players will immediately lose control of their character and switch to the Watcher's view, as if in Spectator mode - viewing from the Watcher's POV applies a post-processing filter with a reddish hue and blurred borders. After 7 seconds, the screen will slowly flash a deep red - the possessed player will regain control of their character afterwards, and a projection of the Watcher with a larger, bright red face and shiny white eyespots will immediately appear on their screen with a loud shriek before quickly fading out. Holding any of the WASD controls will cause the screen to start flashing red at a slower rate; if they are held for 3 seconds, the possessed player will regain control of their character and trigger the jumpscare early. If the Watcher reaches a possessed player while in its shade form, it will return them control of their character and trigger the jumpscare without causing the screen to flash red beforehand.
After possessing a player, a Watcher will be unable to possess them again for some time.
History
| 1.0.0 | Introduced. |
| 1.1.0 | Now has a cooldown for possessing players, which can be altered in the general config file. |
Trivia
- At one point, Watchers were originally planned to resemble aye-ayes, and would have held Occult Gems in their fingers - this was changed, however.
- The Watchers' groans and squeals were voice-acted by PrismaticPinky - a sound designer for Alex's Caves - as was its distinctive shriek.
- Watchers have a default cooldown time of 15 seconds for possessing players. This cooldown time can be altered in the general config file, with 1 full second and 20 minutes being the minimum and maximum amounts of time that can be entered.
- In addition to this, the Watcher's ability to switch a player's POV to its own can be toggled on or off in the general config file.
- If multiple Watchers attempt to possess a player at once, they will cause the game to freeze.
- Watchers will cause the game to crash upon possessing players if a VR mod is actively being used.
Gallery
A Watcher. Image taken with Night Vision.
A Watcher's jumpscare.
A player's view when possessed by a Watcher.
A Watcher using its shade form to fly.
| Magnetic Caves | |
|---|---|
| Primordial Caves | |
| Toxic Caves | |
| Abyssal Chasm | |
| Forlorn Hollows | |
